There were a lot of books which didn't leave during our book/garage sale. For the first couple days, I was extremely disappointed in how many people insisted they "didn't read". But after all, this is Arizona, with one of the worst school systems in the country. It's also a pretty right wing area, though retirees flood down here from all over, and not for the politics but for the senior community and the prices. I do however get repeated comments about how "brave" I am to put several Democratic bumper stickers on my car. So I wasn't surprised when things like Doonsbury books were passed over. Still, I thought there might be one....
I did get requests for things we never had, like math textbooks. Other things we did have were quite popular, like bundles, by authors, of mystery and science fiction books. Those, when they went out, went by the bagfuls. One customer simply wanted to be happy, and wound up buying books of jokes, happy to walk out with a targeted bag after my pointing out what I knew was still there and where. She was only slightly impeded in hauling away her finds by having one arm determinedly snuggling an extremely soft, plush, large green stuffed dinosaur Rich had set out which she also purchased.
Tucked in discretely here and there were a textbook on human sexuality - which I refrained from pointing out to the very young man looking for textbooks - and several slim volumes on birth control including some aimed at teens, along with The Joy of Sex. I didn't have much hope for one other book selling. But here's how it happened.
Two women probably 15 years younger than I am, with no other customers around, picked up the textbook on sexuality. (Yes, I took that college course. The window in the door to the hall was always a bunch of faces fighting for viewing space. They knew what was taught.) The women were laughing over the thought of a mutual (friend?) being somebody they wished would be the beneficiary of that book, if somebody could just sneak it into her living room and walk out with her not being the wiser. They didn't buy it however, even at its very low price, much as they thought of how much she truly needed it.
Sensing their mood, I pointed out a very subdued, though large, book in another box, mentioning how hilarious I'd found it. It was all old Japanese erotic art prints. Parts of what I found so funny was how obsessed the artists were with - ahem - size. Large sections were depictions of men so enormously endowed that they had helpers to support their "junk" while they moved. The more important and therefore larger the man, the more assistance needed. Or was it vice versa? Help might be in the form of a string of other men, or large wheelbarrows, or other things I've long forgotten. Other fantasies were depicted which, if carried out, would be impossible, or extremely painful should the merest tiny thing go wrong. Ladies in swings were a popular theme in those prints. A 12-foot arc needs a lot of precision!!
Yeah, I cringed too.
At any rate, one of the women picked up the book, they both looked through it briefly, and almost in unison said, "______ would love this book! She collects all things Japanese and Chinese!" I trust it's cozily ensconced in its new home, unless perhaps she lives far enough away it has to be mailed.
Do they still prohibit such things in the mail these days?
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